Monday, July 11, 2016

The recent announcement by the Dallas Police
Department that they had used a robot armed with explosives to kill suspected
police shooter, Micah Johnson, has opened a brand new and rather creative
method of controlling the American public. The DPD announced the
following:

"When all attempts
to negotiate with the suspect, Micah Johnson, failed under the exchange of
gunfire, the Department utilized the mechanical tactical robot, as a last
resort, to deliver an explosion device to save the lives of officers and
citizens.

The robot
used was the Remotec, Model F-5, claw and arm extension with an explosive
device of C4 plus “Det” cord.

Approximate weight of
total charge was one pound."

This use of a police
robot to kill a civilian suspect is believed to be the first in United States history.

The robot used, a Remotec Model F-5 is manufactured by
REMOTEC, a subsidiary of the world's sixth largest defense manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, headquartered in Clinton,
Tennessee. ANDROS are the company's series of remotely controlled
robots which are designed for use by the military or by police forces.
Here is a screen capture from Northrop Grumman showing the entire fleet
of Remotec unmanned vehicles:

From the company's
brochure, here is a graphic of the Mark 5A-1
variant:

This variant can be equipped with everything from a modified 12
gauge Franchi 612 shotgun used for breaching to a cordless circular or
reciprocating saw to a real-time X-Ray system. It can also be equipped
with a gas dispenser (i.e. tear gas for crowd control). It comes with an initial 12 month
warranty which can be extended for an additional year in case you were
wondering what would happen if your Mark 5A-1 broke down just after the one
year warranty was up.

Here
is a video showing the Remotec Andros F6A, a sister to the 5A-1 in action to
give you a sense of the size of this beast:

When Tazers were first
introduced, they were seen as a ground-breaking tool for police forces around
the globe. While remotely controlled robots have been in use by police
forces as a means of assessing situations where explosive devices may be in
play for many years, the use of a robot to actually kill a suspect may well open another legal gray
area when it comes to police use of lethal force against civilians.

1 comment:

What I really want to know is if they tricked him as some are saying. That they told him the robot was bringing food to him and that is how the robot got right next to him in order to blow up the bomb. Some are saying it was a box of chicken that held the bomb.

Subscribe To

About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.